Xbox One gets original Xbox compatibility tomorrow

The game industry has long struggled with the value of backwards compatibility, but the last couple years has seen Microsoft taking the reins and putting some real work into making many of the best Xbox 360 games available on Xbox One. This summer, the company announced that games from the original Xbox would be joining the fray, as well. So far, we haven’t been able to pin down just when that would be happening. Get your biplanes, katanas, and lightsabers out – backwards compatibility for Xbox games arrives Tuesday, October 24.

There will be 13 games available at launch, and the games will run at 1080p resolution and feature faster loading times and smoother – maybe even higher – frame rates.

Here are the first 13 titles, in alphabetical order:

Black

BloodRayne 2

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Dead to Rights

Fuzion Frenzy

Grabbed by the Ghoulies

The King of Fighters Neowave

Ninja Gaiden Black

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Psychonauts

Red Faction II

Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

That’s a pretty good mix. Crimson Skies was the first title announced, and might be the most anticipated, but the collection includes everything from hard action games like Ninja Gaiden to platformers like Prince of Persia and Psychonauts, as well as slower-placed games like Pirates! and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. That last one put BioWare on the map for many gamers, and is still one of the best-loved Star Wars games to date.

IGN says that titles that used System Link back in the day can still do it, even across Xbox platforms.

“I got to play a four-player round of Crimson Skies, with me on the original Xbox, another person on Xbox One X, another on an Xbox One S, and the fourth on a launch Xbox One,” IGN writes. Online multiplayer, however, won’t work, as the servers for that were long ago shutdown.

If you already own any of these games, you’ll be able to just pop the disc in and start playing. Same goes for if you own it digitally from the Xbox 360 days. You should also be able to purchase all of them from the Xbox Store for $9.99.

Look, I’m excited about the Xbox One X, about Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and the huge amount of games still left to come out this fall. But I’d be lying if the idea of spending all weekend playing Pirates! wasn’t genuinely appealing.